himself somewhat more firmly on this soil than his commission seemed to justify,chance might offer opportunity, and the signal service find achievement. Such were the thoughts that just now filled his sagacious brain, but the way was by no means clear before him.
While the events narrated in the preceding chapter were in progress, Montejo, with two vessels, had been sent northward to seek a harbor less unwholesome than the present, where many of those wounded at Tabasco had died.[1] As second in command went Rodrigo Álvarez Chico, and as pilots, Alaminos, and Álvarez el Manquillo. On reaching the extreme point attained by Grijalva, the strong current prevented further advance, as in the former attempt.[2] They were obliged by a gale to throw overboard part of their cargo. Water failed, and in the attempt to land an artilleryman perished. Prayer was now their only recourse, and this not only changed the wind, but brought rain. After a fortnight of misadventures[3] they returned to San Juan de Ulua, and hastened bareheaded to the cross to offer thanks. More wholesome airs were not difficult to find, but good harbors were not abundant thereabout. The only favorable spot found by Montejo lay some ten leagues north of the camp, close to the native fortress of Quiahuiztlan.[4] A high rock affording shelter from
- ↑ Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 27. Herrera, dec. ii. lib. v. cap. vi., and others refer to a similar number as being on the sick-list. Yellow fever, or vómito negro, now the scourge of this and adjoining regions, appears to have developed with the growth of European settlements, and Clavigero states that it was not known there before 1725. Storia Mess., i. 117.
- ↑ 'Hasta el parage del rio grande de Pánuco.' Herrera, loc. cit. 'Llegaron al parage del rio grande, que es cerca de Panuco, adonde otra vez llegamo quado lo del Capitá Juan de Grijalua.' Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 27.
- ↑ 'Doze dias que gastaron en este peligroso viage.' Herrera, ubi sup. Boluiose al cabo de tres semanas . . . . le salian los de la costa, y se sacauă sangre, y se la ofreciã en pajuelos por amistad a deidad.' Gomara, Hist. Mex., 45.
- ↑ Ixtlilxochiti, Hist. Chich., 289. Quiauitl, rain or shower. Molina, Vocabulario. Hence rainy place. Herrera calls it Chianhuitzlan, and this has been adopted by Clavigero and most other writers. Prescott, Mex., i. 348, in a note holds up Clavigero as a standard for the spelling of Mexican names, but he forgets that the Italian form, as in the above case, would be misleading to English people.
